Diversity

Diversity: It really does matter

Since 1997, the first year that U.S. News & World Report began ranking colleges on the diversity of their student bodies, U.S. News has rated Rutgers University-Newark the most diverse national university in the United States; no other school has been so recognized.

Does graduating from the nation’s most diverse school really make a difference in a student’s overall academic experience? Is it possible to assign an educational value to the racial, ethnic and religious diversity of a college’s student body?

A resounding “yes” is the answer from thousands of graduating seniors and alumni at U.S. News & World Report’s most diverse national university in the United States, Rutgers University-Newark*. Every year hundreds of graduating seniors, responding to open-ended questions on R-N exit surveys, say that the diversity of the campus contributed profoundly to the quality of their Rutgers-Newark education. In fact, that aspect of their academic experience receives more positive comment than any other.

The same theme is sounded repeatedly from alumni, especially those who have graduated in the last decade. Those who have gone into the business world report that diversity is widely recognized as integral to business creativity in the global marketplace. They tell us that the experiences they gained here, working with people from so many different backgrounds, have given them a competitive advantage in their careers.